Hero
by TheFangedPrincess
Summary: Who said every life ended happily? I sure didn’t. A one-shot about Thalia and Luke, the goodbyes they never said and Thalia’s immortal life hence forth.


**Who said every life ended was happy? **_**I **_**sure didn't. A one-shot about Thalia and Luke, the goodbyes they never said and Thalia's immortal life hence forth. It starts out at the beginning of the last battle between Kronos and Percy, where Thalia gets stuck under the statue of Hera. **

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She hated it. She used to love him. She needed to go. She had to stay. Trapped, nearly crushed, and hopeless, she sent the remaining heroes off. They were wasting time trying to get the marble queen off of her. Besides, _she_ didn't need help with the statue breaking her legs. She needed them to save _him. _He could still be saved, right? They could kill Kronos and heal his body. He could live and be a hero again. His future, _her _future, would continue. It wouldn't stop; it couldn't. So she sat, under the horrid statue, surrounded in destruction, and waited. Waited for the battle to be over. Waited for him to save her again. Waited for her heart to stop pulsing out dread. Waited because she ever thought she didn't care. Waited because she believed she could kill him. Waited. And waited. And waited…

***

The sword, Backbiter, was flung into the hearth in the throne room. It tinted red, but its master still grabbed it frantically. He dropped it just as fast, his hands seared and burnt, falling to his knees. Staring through his own eyes, fighting for control, he begged the hero to give him the knife. He'd hurt too many people. The little girl he promised a better family to; the demigods he captured through lies; the insane mother of his he'd run away from so long ago; his father, who loved him more than almost anyone. But the one who really mattered had disappeared from his life, swearing to a life away from his company, and that hurt could make him lose control again. So he focused on the little girl he'd dumped so many empty promises on, who still believed he could be the hero even when the one person he needed to believe him the most didn't.

Finally, the hero handed over the knife. The broken demigod, with his last bit of strength, pushed it into his own skin, the only mortal part of him left. It didn't cut deep physically, but emotionally it was as deep as the ocean. While the witnesses to his death would believe it was the girl with the blonde curls and immeasurable faith that gave him strength, he would die with the truth: that it was the other girl, who abandoned him like he thought everyone else did. The girl who he hadn't seen in years because she was stuck in a pine tree or fighting by a goddess's side. The girl who would keep living and living, without him. The girl that he loved and hated for turning her back on him. The girl that didn't say goodbye. So he closed his eyes for the last time with that secret, dreaming of Elysium. He didn't want to try this whole 'life' thing again. It was bad enough the first time.

***

She knew it. She knew they didn't save him when the atmosphere felt peaceful again. She limped to the palace of the gods, free from the statue that imprisoned her final farewell to her hero. Everyone was happy and joyful, so she put on a smile as she saw the Fates carry out his body and didn't stop them to say goodbye because he was gone and with him, her world. She left to save him, left so he could delay his choice, left him so he could gain control and save himself.

The gods sat in council, and she was called up first. She was praised by her lady, her father, her friends. Pretending to be proud, she limped over to Artemis, and bowed to all of the immortals. The rest of the council went and passed. Then she was off with her lady and her maidens, as if nothing had happened besides the saving of Olympus. As if she cared about Olympus. It was the reason she was dying in her immortal body. But she left, nonetheless, and waited.

The girl that had accompanied the son of Poseidon and the brave satyr on that terrible day on Olympus had found her oldest friend, the one beaming with false pride and leaning on crutches, near a demolished shrine. She told her about their friend, hero to both, and his last words. About him trying for three lives, and returning to the Earth. About how he was good in the end. About how she, her immortal friend, might see him again. About how she wished she could, too. The last part angered the immortal girl though, so she left. _She_, only second in their hero's heart, had said goodbye. _She_ had seen him finally good. _She_ had known all along.

And so, life passed on for the rest of the world. The immortal girl watched her friends wither and die, one by one, until the girl that said goodbye was left. She had visited only twice since the day her hero died, and it was only for her wedding and the birth of her first child. Again she plastered on that false smile and pride, and congratulated her friend and cousin. After a while, the immortal lost count, the latter died. The former seemed unchanged. She came to ask why, after losing her love and life, how could she still be so happy and just keep living? The answer was simple. Her time was rapidly approaching, and they would again be together, back to where they left off. And she was happy to be closer to the day she would join her other friend also, the one that saved the world and sacrificed himself. Again, the immortal was unhappy with this answer.

The immortal's last tie to her old life died, and finally, so did her heart. She knew her hero had stayed in Elysium, had never tried for three lives and the Isles of the Blest, had never come back for her. So she was again angry.

***

He stayed in Elysium. He knew she would know. She knew him like no one else did. She was the first in his 'new, better family' and he was the first in hers. He realized that, though immortal, she could still die and he could set things right. He had to. He loved her, and she didn't know it. He died and she lived and to everyone else it seemed like they had drifted apart the moment she was turned into a tree and he turned evil. The moment she was brought out of the tree, brought back to his world, it seemed like they were enemies because he was on the wrong side. She never acted like her old self after that, and he thought she wasn't, that she was a new person. But he saw her, once, and he knew she was there, on the inside.

Always too proud, too worried to be fighting for the wrong reasons, she left him. She joined the immortal maidens and left the prophecy to the next in line. It wouldn't have been her, anyways, to fulfill the prophecy. She had no more choices to make. So the son of the sea god would give him the time destroy himself, possibly the whole world.

Centuries passed, and still she stayed alive. Others joined him, oh yes, many others, including the girl with the blonde curls who was there when someone else wasn't, and the hero that gave him the knife, he was there, and many of the used-to-be-immortal-maidens that had died because of him, of course _they_ were there, and his half siblings, though not all in Elysium, they came too, and other demigods as well. Yes, they were there. But _she_ stayed above. She fought for her lady, and talked with mortals at camp every now and then, and stared at mortals with blue eyes and blonde hair, and never looked back on the past, and lived and lived and lived.

***

She lived and lived and lived. And she was invincible in battles, like nothing could hurt her, like she was being forced to live. She couldn't fall ill, no matter how many disease filled places she occupied, and no amount of courage could make her ask the goddess for mortality.

But alas, immortality can't save you from heartbreak. And after a while, heartbreak kills, quite literally. And the goddess, whom she had sworn to that she would never love, discovered the feelings harbored by her lieutenant. So, away went immortality, and away went the immortal maidens, and hello came more heartbreak. She wandered the streets, not fully wanting to die, not wanting to face him. She knew they wouldn't be in the same place. She broke a swear to a goddess; he sacrificed himself to save the world.

The battered girl underestimated mortality, however, and found herself in the state all her friends had left her in: old. She was weak and she was unhappy and she was dying. She knew it was near, and for once, she was happy. Maybe she could make things right between her hero and herself. She saved many lives in her days, even after becoming mortal again. Surely even Hades could see that? She hoped so. So, she waited, like long ago, and waited. Waited to die. Waited to see her hero. Waited to see old friends. Waited to be happy again. Waited. And waited. And waited…

And she died…

***

Much to her own surprise, the girl moved on straight to the Isles. Hades said something about living much over three lifetimes and being a hero in every one. She didn't see it that way, and didn't want to go to the Isles. He wouldn't be there, would he?

No, he was not there. And he saw her die and he saw her enter the Isles of the Blest. So, he did the natural thing: tried for two more lives. The years passed quickly as they both watched his lives begin and end, always ending heroically. He fought great beasts and saved many people and saw many people, too. Of course, he never fell in love in any of these lives, not even close. He did, however, meet up with old friends from his first life, also trying for the isles. They fought together and again, he was the first to die. But he was happy, because this was his third life and he was sure he died a hero.

When he was indeed sent to the Isles, he saw the girl, teenaged like he'd left her, waiting at the gates. She smiled. So did he. And they knew that it didn't matter about the pain they had suffered to get there, to the Isles, to happiness, to each other. And they, as they say, lived happily ever after.

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**Yeah, I didn't really like the ending. But hey, if you did, then you rock! Please review! Flames will be used to burn your houses down. Hehe…**


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